Easter's On the Way!

Easter is nearing! Spring is almost here!

I'm considering offering to host an  Easter lunch for my hubby's family. Last year it seemed as if there was a lot of hurt and confusion as to who was invited to what so if we host that means I'm committed to inviting a large amount of people into our small apartment. I know not everyone would come but I want everyone to feel welcome.

On my break today I started brainstorming recipe ideas for either an Easter brunch or lunch. To jump start my thinking, I text ed my family and friends and asked (the obviously poorly phrased):

What foods do you think of when you think of Easter?

The responses:

My little sister: Reese eggs! (Yum-O!)
And after clarification: Ham and Au Gratin Potatoes or Potato Salad

Lyric: Deviled eggs, mac n cheese, black eyed peas

K10: Eggs, ham, white cake

Banana: Eggs. Marshmallows. Pastel sweets
To which I replied: Sounds great. We'll have scrambled eggs, marshmallows and lavendar cake.

I guess I should have clarified that I was looking for menu ideas.

What are your favorite Easter dishes? Would you rather cook/eat a lunch or brunch?

Valentine's Day Cards

I mailed out a bunch of homemade Valentine's cards at the end of last week.

K10 loves yellow and the yellow blue combo

Chocolates for Hotglue

Lots of hearts for my mom/dad/sister

Blue and Green are my "little's" favorite colors

A fun, simple card for Lyric

I also made a purple leopard print card for my divaish little cousin and a red, pink and white lacey card for Mike, but of course I forgot to take pictures!

Shelly's Chicken Casserole

A very good friend of mine taught me how to make this (several times, I'm a slow learner with a bad memory) and Mike and I both love it.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken or 2 boneless skinless  chicken breasts
8oz sour cream
2 cans cream of chicken (or 1 can cream of chicken, 1 can mushroom)
melted butter
approx 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs or stuffing mixture

Steps:

Boil and shred the chicken. Combine with sour cream and creams of chicken. In a seperate bowl combine the bread crumbs with melted butter. Layer chicken, crumbs, chicken, crumbs. Finish by pouring approx 2 cups of the broth the chicken boiled in over the casserole. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

A Fun Filled Halloween Weekend

What did you do for Halloween?

Saturday night I went to a party at Hotglue's apartment. She and her roomates were dressed as characters from Dora, I went as a 1950's housewife, Lyric as Audrey Hepburn and K10 as Rosie the Riveter.

We played board games, drank strawberry margaritas and they taught me how to meringue, in case I want to do it at my wedding. Sunday night a group off us walked around the neighboorhood looking at all of the tiny tiny princesses and cowboys. It was fun and we got good exercise.

Novembers Here!

And a fun filled month it will be!

This week I'm baking 50-200 cookies for the Dean's Tea
This weekend is my bridal shower and two of my bridemaids and I will be spending Friday night at my parent's house.
My college's homecoming dance is this Saturday night
Next weekend is Lyric's 22nd birthday and we're all going out for dinner and gelato.
The third weekend in Novemeber is my Bachelorette Party! All of the details are still a suprise! I'm so excited!
And then its Thanksgiving weekend!

Things to look for this month:

A Halloween post
A Bridal shower recap post
Bachelorette Post- possibly a guest post from hotglue if I can convince her
A post on all of the wonderful holiday cards shutterfly has to offer
]A book review of Eat Pray Love

College is Offically in Session...

(Does that mean I could have skipped class last week? )

We had opening convocation today, which traditionally means we get all dressed up and go listen to a few speeches and then feast on fried chicken on the lawn.

This year was different. This year we're SENIORS! And this year was the best year yet.

We spent last night decorating the campus in red. My class is the Red Devil Class of 2011 (Odd years are red devils, even pink panthers) My group of friends was responsible for decorating the rock and the fountains.

Aren't we cute

Pretty good for nongangsters....

I promise I have shorts on.

This morning we filed into the assembly wearing our graduation gowns and red devil gear. I almost teared up walking down that aisle. The entire room was silent as we entered and our little sister class was waving red pom poms in the air. There was an intense feeling of love, support , and sisterhood. As we began to file into our seats they erupted into cheers and shouts and we joined in with them.

Waiting to line up

Tail shot

 

The speech was given by an amazing, friendly and somewhat eccentric professor, who began by handing out speaking rubrics to his faculty  (which he mispronuced as phallic) colleagues. He then asked us to wait a minute while he went and grabbed someone. He came back carrying a cardboard cut out of Jacob Black.  He told us it was because he knew a full moon was around (Full Moon is the secret group of senior pranksters). We all howled with laughter and he occasioanlly referenced Jacon in his speech.

I almost teared up when we sang the alma mater, and when we filed out and the pompoms were again waved.

I love the women I've met here and have never regretted my decision to attend an all women's college. I've loved every minute of my time here. Its a bittersweet experience for me because I know I will not be here in the Spring for all of the senior celebrations with these fabulous women and the Converse traditions. I'm trying to soak up everything I can semester, to make every minute a memory.

I love all of these ladies!

The roomies: "Lyric", K10, Me

Me and my "little sister"

A New Widget for my ATM Favorites

I freqently post about my ATM Favorite things, many of which happen to be products. I've decided to place an ATM Favorites Widget at the top of the page. I hope to update it about once a week, and the updates will be accompanied by a post telling you what I think.

Here are the current ATM Favorite Products:

1. Real Simple Magazine   - I love  this magazine. Its got great organizing tips, planning tips and recipes. I love to just flip through the and look at the beautiful and clever ads. I was able to score a one year subscription for $5. It was my birthday present to myself

2. Wedding Planner-- I bought this the other night at Barnes and Noble. It looks like the sticker price is cheaper at Amazon, not sure about once you add shipping and handling. I was amazed by the variety of wedding planning books. There were books, bigger, smaller, pinker, gother, DIYer than this one. I loved that this book breaks down budgets, to do lists, and a monthly checklist of things to be done.It even has color pictures and descriptions of typical wedding flowers. I browsed through a book at Barnes and Noble about how to twist wedding traditions to fit your style, but it didnt include any worksheets, which is really what Iwas looking for,

3. Darius Rucker's History in the Making-- I'm really loving this song right now. The line 'this could be our last first kiss" really struck me the other day, when I realized that I've had my last first kiss. Its a really bittersweet, tingly feeling. Details? All you get is that it was at the movies.

4. Recipe Organizer- a gift from my roomate for my birthday. She knows I'm cooking challenged and included a few of my favorite recipes of hers. I can't wait to fill it up with recipes I learn.

5. Classic Bride Wedding Planner-- also a gift from my roomate. No worksheets in this one, but thats not what she was aiming for. Its got some great ideas,as well as expectations and explainations of traditons.

6. Last but not least, I got some window markers in my Christmas stocking. My roomate and I have had a blast doodling on our floor length mirror. We turned the bottom half of the mirror into an aquarium. The top half we made into the world of Ella and Lyric, two invented characters. Lyric dress like a kindergarten teacher and sings "I'm on a Boat". Lyric looks like she was drawn by a kindergartener, sports a crown and sings  "If all the lemondrops were gum drops and....jellybeans?" She also thinks she is part spider monkey.

I have an ATM Favorite Poem: It's Peter Meinke's "Email from Tokyo" and you can find it here. Its about having children, and how parents pass on bad habits, but its never NOT worth it. Its an answer to a poem by, Philip Larkin who is answering a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson.